Tanner Andrews 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (1404) comment rss

  • On the post: Texas Legislature Convinced First Amendment Simply Does Not Exist

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 25 Jun, 2023 @ 05:31am

    established standard

    If a website has articles (which is definitely the reason you’re on it, I know) plus naughty pictures, is the percentage calculated by comparing the number of porn-y things to the number of articles?
    The standard is that ``a picture is worth a thousand words'', so we know how to calculate. Multiply # pics by a thousand. Then you can compare the numbers to see if it passes muster: (1000 * # pics) + # porn-y words < # non-porn-y words See, that was not so hard.

  • On the post: Lawyers Who Used ChatGPT In Lieu Of Research Must Pay $5k, Alert Other Judges

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 24 Jun, 2023 @ 03:10pm

    trump unlikely to pay

    their angle on this whole thing is to get hired by Trump
    Probably not. They are going to need paying clients, and you may be able to find information about Trump payment reliability from Rudy Giuliani (a/k/a Roodles the Clown). Roodles appears to have time on his hands so he could answer questions.

  • On the post: Twitter’s Lawyers Admit They’re Overwhelmed As Nearly 2000 Laid Off Employees File Arbitration Claims

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 19 Jun, 2023 @ 07:35am

    the good parts

    They should demand that each discovery be individual and separate
    Almost universally in the arbitration clauses. Ptf attys should simply quote the no-class-action provision in there back to JAMS in each case. This is especially true in those cases where ptf sued in court and Twitter said no, you must arbitrate. Well, separate is called for in the arbitration clause they insisted upon.

  • On the post: Many Of The States Endlessly Freaking Out About TikTok Still Have State Websites That Funnel Sensitive Data To TikTok

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 12 Jun, 2023 @ 03:42am

    not reliable

    Techdirt could get rid of its cookie banner entirely, for example
    It probably could not do it reliably, however. That thing has been at the bottom of my browser tab since the new site came along, and clicking ``got it'' does nothing at all. I suspect that whoever worked on that also worked on ``preview'' (still does not work) and the flag (still does not work). Since this sort of stuff worked on the old site, I have to figure that the competent people either stayed back or retired.

  • On the post: Welcome To Twitter, Linda Yaccarino, No One Wants To Advertise On Your Terrible Platform Any More

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 09 Jun, 2023 @ 05:19am

    not always

    Trumpers always get jobs.
    Rudy Giuliani may still be available if you are having a shortage of employees.

  • On the post: Welcome To Twitter, Linda Yaccarino, No One Wants To Advertise On Your Terrible Platform Any More

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 09 Jun, 2023 @ 05:08am

    frequently asked question

    Another variant which I prefer: is there any set of circumstances under which I should be required to host your campaign yard sign in my yard, when I do not like you? This also presents as your Nazi uncle in my living room. And you probably do not want my big appetite chowing down on the snacks you set out in your living room for your alt-right friends.

  • On the post: Twitter Keeps Breaking In Dangerous Ways: Deleted Tweets Reappearing

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 06 Jun, 2023 @ 05:50am

    most of the problems faced right now can be traced back to Musk’s personal decisions
    Right. However, twitter is now Musk's toy, without a bunch of pesky shareholders wanting dividends. So he can do pretty much what he wants with it. There are some potential problems if he fails to pay creditors such as hosting companies and landlords. Generally these will be between twitter and the offended vendors, however, and any remedies had against twitter will affect the owner and not a bunch of shareholders. Twitter users have very little real claim if the service is disrupted or if it fails entirely. Remember that the users are the product, not the customers.

  • On the post: Meta Warns That It Will Remove News From Facebook & Instagram In California, Rather Than Pay Buffy Wicks’ Bribes

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 06 Jun, 2023 @ 02:04am

    does not work

    And that is why there should be a death tax.
    It does not work. Volusia County passed a death tax years ago, and people keep on dying, undeterred by yet another tax here in a famously high-tax county.

  • On the post: Supreme Court Leaves 230 Alone For Now, But Justice Thomas Gives A Pretty Good Explanation For Why It Exists In The First Place

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2023 @ 04:44am

    getting off on a technicality

    But the bribes we know Thomas is taking don’t come from the GOP, they come from a billionaire
    Technically, they are not considered bribes. They are not intended to influence specific decisions, or at least I have seen nothing to suggest that they are tied to specific decisions. Sure, it still looks bad that Thomas generally wants to rule for the money and the party, after being lavisly benefitted. That makes it hard to get the stink off, but it is not technically a bribe. There are no enforceable ethical standards governing the Supreme Court. Absent such, I cannot say that even actual bribes would be problematic. But, as I said, bribery is not the Clarence Thomas set of facts. At one time attorneys were expected to defend the Court against pubic criticism. They are making it very difficult these days.

  • On the post: Supreme Court Leaves 230 Alone For Now, But Justice Thomas Gives A Pretty Good Explanation For Why It Exists In The First Place

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2023 @ 04:36am

    local laws

    And the splintering of local laws in the United States is not a really good fit for a nation that is not tied into a single unit by Pony Express any more
    Local control has a lot of advantages. Here in Florida, the legislative lunatics in Tallahassee take advantage of one-party govt to dictate restrictions on local government, even to the level of barring land use decisions based on the characteristics of the area. They dictate all sorts of local policy from Tally; for instance, any local history is to be excluded from school curricula as not being within the state standards. The general theory is that all wisdom resides in Tallahassee, A cynic might think that Tally was * not all that far from Chattahoochee * downhill from Chattahoochee and could draw conclusions from those observations. At the Federal leve, there seems to be a consensus among politicians that wisdom resides in Washington and should be shoveled out generously to cover the country. There are some cases where this may be appropriate: we could reasonably want a single gauge for railroads, or a single set of frequencies for TV stations. I am not so sure I want Congress meddling in reading material, or schools, or food choices, or in fact most of the things I do in daily life. There is probably something in the water of the Potomac. At any rate, judgment in Washington seems as questionable as judgment in Tallahassee or Chattahoochee.

  • On the post: Monster Energy Opposes A Fitness Trainer’s Trademark Because Of Course It Did

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 28 May, 2023 @ 01:01am

    another monstrous waste of time

    This brings to mind an amusing dispute between another "monster" claimant and an intended mark. You can google for it, or jusrt paste the link: https://www.bluejeanscable.com/legal/mcp/ Markdown is odd, and preview still does not work as it did on the old platform, so there is the link. I will test these thing when preview gets fixed.

  • On the post: TV Industry’s Idea Of Innovation: A Free TV With A Second Small TV That Constantly Shows You Ads

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 27 May, 2023 @ 12:48am

    the third problem

    1. Assume the room is dim enough to see the video from the projector, which you have carefully mounted and wired. Otherwise the whole cunning scheme falls apart.
    2. You can see about adjusting the trapezoid and any other shape adjustments required.
    3. Then, you can handle the third probem: focus.

  • On the post: Since When Is It Illegal To Just Mention A Trademark Online?

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 23 May, 2023 @ 01:43am

    happens on occasion

    Oh for the day when a lawyer would advise someone against legal action because it was simply being litigous
    In my experience, this only happens on days ending in `Y'.

  • On the post: TikTok Users Waste No Time: Sue Montana Same Day TikTok Ban Was Signed

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 22 May, 2023 @ 01:46am

    cfaa

    Bypassiing your work or school firewall does not break the law
    Exceeding authorized access, wait for some hammer-head of an AUSA to give it a try.

  • On the post: Small Cafe Changes Its Name Due To Having Spanish Word For ‘Coffee’ In Its Name

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 17 May, 2023 @ 04:04am

    geographic origin

    CAFE CON TAMPA (USPTO 5620692)
    It is hard to see that as more than a designator of geographic origin. It is a generic product with city. A little more anglicized hypothetical: go down to Broward with a shovel and start packaging ``Hollywood beach sand''. It ought to be impossible to register that as a trade mark. I should be able to register ``Mr. Andrews' Hollywood beach sand'', because that is no longer a purely geographic description.

  • On the post: Even The People Who Were Eager To Pay Elon Musk $8/Month Are Cancelling Their Blue Subscriptions

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 09 May, 2023 @ 02:10am

    not thinking clearly

    will free up the usernames
    In fairness, this was not all that well thought out at the beginning. You have a large flat namespace -- there can only be one @username even if that is a common name. Had they been thinking at the start, they might have at least had some sort of prefix, e.g. @citycide-username, or @areacode-username, that would have helped disambiguate. If this happened to make things easier for those interested in their local area, so much the better. And if Twitter started out to accommodate car phones and 140-byte limits, then area codes might be a somewhat reasonable choice, despite the fact that some people still have area codes from when they lived hundreds of miles away.

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 08 May, 2023 @ 12:53am

    my living room, my rules

    Banning individual statements out of disagreement with their viewpoint is censorship.
    Not necessarily. If I own the living room, web site, or bar, it is my property. I am free to say that I do not want Yankee fans, revenge porn defenders, and nazis, respectively, in these places. It is not censorship in the classic sense, the unwelcome are free to go to someone else's living room to spout their love for their favored AL team. They need only avoid trespassing on my property, real virtual or leased as the case may be. Have you a plausible-sounding argument that I should be obliged to host speech with which I would not care to be associated?

  • On the post: Cops Issue Warning To Students Playing A Game With Fake Guns, Fail To Mention Cops Are Most Likely To Kill Them

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 06 May, 2023 @ 05:17am

    and another thing

    Until Intel and AMD are held liable for the buggy stuff running on their machines, ``preview'' and ``flag'' will likely stay broken.

  • On the post: Cops Issue Warning To Students Playing A Game With Fake Guns, Fail To Mention Cops Are Most Likely To Kill Them

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 06 May, 2023 @ 05:16am

    good first start

    Until manufacturers and retailers are financially liable for the damage their weapons cause you’re fucked
    Until the bottlers of Coca-Cola are held liable for the damage from obesity and tooth decay, you are out of luck. And until people start holding car manufacturers liable for the people run over in the streets, your future looks grim. Until hammer vendors are held liable for pain and suffering, you might as well just not have thumbs.

  • On the post: Montana’s Governor’s Changes To TikTok Ban Bill Would Ban All Social Media Entirely

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 05 May, 2023 @ 02:28am

    alec

    Go ahead, google ``American Legislative Exchange Council'', we will wait. And I think you may understand why it is that so many states' legislatures seem to come up with these stupid ideas at about the same time. Remember, these meetings are not just paid vacations. They are industry-funded lobbying opportunies. Carefully structured, so it may not be necessary to disclose them, but check with your particular state's laws and do not rely upon my speculation.

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